Do you want to install solar PV on your business premises, and maximise your energy savings and your return on investment?
To get the best value for your investment in solar power, the system design should take account of:
- your goals, investment criteria, how long to plan to stay, whether your own or lease the building, etc.
- your present electricity ‘load profile’; how the power draw varies throughout the day and throughout the year, revealed by ‘smart meter’ electricity hourly ‘interval data’,
for example:- this load profile of a bakery is well suited to solar, because load is higher in the middle of the day:
- the load profile below of a warehouse is not well suited to solar, because a big part of the electrical load is lighting, which is turned off when the sun is shining (the warehouse has good skylights):
- how the solar PV system will be funded, e.g.:
- a lump sum paid up front,
- an environmental upgrade agreement (EUA) repaid through Council rates or
- financed through a loan, lease to purchase or similar finance method which is designed to be cash-flow positive from day 1.
- the potential for to invest in energy efficiency technologies now and the effect of the potential energy savings on your electricity load profile,
- the potential to time-shift some loads, to better match the pattern of solar electricity generation,
- the building and roof slope and orientation, areas, etc.
- the optimum orientation and tilt of solar panel arrays, to maximise your financial return over the whole year, including a hour-by-hour simulation of electrical load, solar PV electricity generation, grid electricity import and export and electricity import and export prices,
- the condition of the roof, whether repairs or replacement is advisable and whether those related roof works could be folded into the financing arrangement,
- shading which will affect the performance of solar PV, now or in the future,
- the relative performance of systems using DC (direct current), DC with panel optimisers and AC (alternating current) with micro-inverters.
Would you like to discuss the optimum package of electricity load reduction through energy efficiency plus solar PV in your business in Victoria?. Please phone us (contact details here).
Walking the talk
In our own office building, we have combined energy efficiency and a small (5 kW) solar power system, so we now generate more electricity than we use and export more electricity to the grid than we import. This electricity invoice from March 2018 shows total electricity:
- imports from the grid (64 + 62 kWh = 126 kWh for the month).
- exports to the grid = 472 kWh for the month.
